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Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Wedge Antilles: A True Hero

To think I thought today was like any other day....that is until I realized it wasn't. No. Today is May 4th or, May the 4th--which founds like you're saying, "May the force" only with a lisp, so therefore it is Star Wars (lisp) day!

Last year I celebrated the event by bringing you what I deemed as the Scariest Moments in Star Wars history. It was fun, but now I'm out of scariest moments and so I have to think of something unique and stuff. Fear not fellow Star Wars nerds, this year I have decided to highlight the very best that the Rebel Alliance has to offer.......

I have this strange fascination with Wedge that I hope I'm not alone in coveting. To this day I still wildly regret that time I saw a Wedge Antilles action figure at KB Toys and did not buy it.

Do you know how much better my life would be if I had that? Do you know how much better off I would be mentally if I could clutch my Wedge Antilles action figure and receive the vast amount of knowledge that only a truly skilled fighter pilot could possess?! I rue the day.

Not a lot of people think about Wedge. In fact, not a lot of people know about Wedge because he just isn't given enough loving. But in case you don't know, Wedge Antilles pretty much did everything right all the time. I'm serious. Was there ever a time when Wedge messed up? Look, he's not Porkins okay?

He survives throughout all three Star Wars films (yes there are only 3) AND blows up the 2nd Death Star in Return of the Jedi AND makes it back in time to party with the Ewoks and give Luke a hug.

Plus! He's really nice. I know that because no one ever has anything bad to say about him, Unlike Porkins who I assume everyone hated because his name was Porkins and he was fat and the most useless fighter pilot ever. Wedge was a hard worker, modest and not a bad pilot himself. So what if Luke had the force? Wedge had the skills, and let it not be forgotten.

Aside from all that goodness that Wedge brings to the Rebel Alliance, I don't really have a good reason for loving him so much. Maybe it's the randomness associated with his character. Maybe it's the fact that his name is Wedge. Yes, perhaps my love for Wedge is purely unexplainable.

It's irrational and strange. Just like how it's irrational and strange that I love that part in Return of the Jedi when the camera zooms in on the Storm Trooper's boot as he presses the pedal on his Imperial Speeder Bike.

It's so weird, but I LOVE IT. But yes...Wedge...fucking love him.

WEDGE FACTS:

---Wedge was an orphan just like Luke Skywalker. His parents were killed by fleeing pirates when he was a teenager.

---He started small by being a smuggler of weapons for the Rebel Alliance which he transported with a freighter that he bought with money from an insurance settlement.

---Wedge is a traditional man who stayed with the X-wing while everyone else upgraded to the A and B wings in Return of the Jedi.

---In real life, Ewan McGregor is Denis Lawson's nephew!

For more Wedge facts click here (This website is almost a little too nerdy for my nerd self to handle, but totally worth it).